Rants on Cycling and on Life:
Photos of people and bicycles that pass in front of my camera

4.27.2008

ah... photos from the 2008 Greenbrier Challenge

some fast clydesdale competition today at the greenbrier challengenine racers at the lineof the top three... any one of us could have finished first

I fought hard to be the fastest

there was some cat and mouse

I tried to race smartI tried to race fast and in control

smart racing was on my mindI felt that I could win if I rode and raced wiselytrying to go fast... but not get lost in trying to prove anythingseconds gained by getting wild can be minutes lost with a crash or worse yet a crash causing a mechanical

late in lap two I suffered a front flatat first I thought it was the front shockeither way I had to pull over and access the situation

sure enough... I had a flatwhile trying to fix this flat I was passed by a number of racersincluding two clydesdales

the quick release was missing a piece which caused the removal of the wheel to take longer than a flat repair should takeseveral minutes turned out to be a tad more than several minutesa glance at the results may give an estimate repair time

eventually I was back on the bike and fighting to catch the two clydesdales who had passed methe competition was goodthe competition was also sportingI caught them boththere was a bit more cat and mousebut I was able to thrust aheadfearing that they were both gaining fastI had some fun on the last couple of downhillsnot fast and foolish... a second flat without a second tube would have been for the fools

I came across the line and the annouce spoke over the loud speakerJOEL GWADZ THE FASTEST OF THE BIG GUYS or something to that effectI was happy the race was overI was happy I had racedI was happy how the race had gone

ah... photosphotos from the Greenbrier Challenge photos by mikemike's seldomly updated blogsome good photosnot sure if mike raced today...maybe mike raced marathonmaybe mike just drove up to watch the raceI did not see mikeI was too busy watching the trail in front of me

thanks to the folks at PVC for a SUPER EVENT!things ran smoothly... late starts are part of mountain bikingthe greenbrier challenge

Good work for hanging in there Joel. I cracked after the first lap and suffered through the rest. How can the pros be that fast? Props to anyone who finished yesterday. That was legitimately hard core.

About Me

if you want to know about me all you need to do is check out my BLOG
it is not the same everyday or everyweek
the focus changes and alters with my moods and with the events of the day and the events of my life